Fun with bunnies and ducks

Now this was a fun project I got to do with the girls. The older girls that is, Christina was to busy sleeping, eating and pooping. I got the inspiration from Micheals. They had a display of Easter crafts and Courtney was just begging me to buy the materials for it.

So like the good mother that I am I bought them. ;-)

Here are the material that you are going to need.

2 1/2 in. Styrofoam balls

Mini flower pots ( I used two of each)

googly eyes

glue gun

Paint (any color of your choice)

Color foam sheets

fuzzy pipe cleaners

sequins (optional)

scissors

foam paint brushes



It seems like a lot of stuff because truthfully it is. The mini-flower pots were on sale for 2 for $.89 and everything else was no more than $2. But, most of the supplies I used I had in my craft cabinet already. 

First thing you need to do is paint the outside of your mini flower pot. I choose white for the bunny and yellow for the ducks.  If you are doing this with children make sure you have PLENTY of newspaper on the table you are working on. They made an absolute mess.

What was I thinking letting Kat use a paint brush all by herself. LOL but she and Coutney had loads of fun.

Then decorate them to your hearts desire. Cutting out different shapes with the styrofoam sheets. Oh I forgot to add I also used these 3-D glitter pens. They really come in hand when the kids want to work with glitter and you are afraid that they will get glitter everywhere.

 

Aren't they just darling. I think they turned out really good. 



















 

Glittered Eggs

As Easter is quickly approaching on us I've noticed that I have not started my Easter decorating in the house. Last year for Easter I did these glitter eggs but they've gotten misplaced in my house full of junk.

So I've decided to do them again because they are really fun to do and WHO doesn't like to work with glitter!!!! First off you need to work in an area where you do not mind finding glitter once the project is done. Marty was pretty upset that he kept finding glitter all over his clothes every time he sat at the dinning room table. That was my fault. LOL I have a crafting area in the basement. But, it is so freakin cold down there I do all of my crafting upstairs for now. Enough rambling lets get to the task at hand. The material you will need:

• Plastic eggs


• Martha Stewart glitter multi-pack


• Mod Podge (not pictured)


• toothpicks or ka-bob skewers


• paper plates


• foam paint brush


• Styrofoam


• spray sealer (not pictured)

First, I stuck my toothpick into one of the little holes at the bottom of the egg so I could easily paint & glitter every part of the egg. I applied a somewhat thin coat of mod podge with a foam brush & then sprinkled my glitter. (be sure to work over the paper plate so you can funnel your leftover glitter back in the bottle.

Let them dry by sticking the skewer in some leftover floral styrofoam.

Once you are done glittering your eggs use your sealant to avoid getting glitter all over your hand when you touch them. If not, then glitter will mysteriously appear EVERYWHERE. You could use the Mod Podge to seal in the glitter but I noticed that they are not as sparkly as they would be using the Gloss spray sealant. Once they are finish drying from the sealant. Find a pretty bowl to arrange your eggs in and wah-lah you are done.

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Baby Animal Pictures

Well, I have come to the last crafting project for Christina's room....Whewww. Their was one of the walls in her room that was totally bare and I wanted to put something there.. but what?

I went to Target, looked on PotteryBarn Kids, Walmart, Babies-r-us. Need I say more. I couldn't find anything that I really liked. Or if I did find something it was WAY out of my price range. So I came up with an idea to paint a mural on the wall (to ambitious for me). Plus, I do not have the artistic ability for a project that huge. I mean, come on, it's a bedroom wall. If I were to mess up I would try to kick myself in the but and the way my butt is spreading now I could probably do it.LOL

Going with the original idea, I decided to go smaller. So I went to Michaels to get some painting canvas'. I stood in the aisle for a long time trying to figure out what size I wanted to get.
(Do I go with a big canvas or a bunch of small ones)

Then, I remembered a design challenge I saw on the Nate Burkus show (now one of my new favorite shows on daytime TV) and he was telling one of the contestants that having a bunch of smaller art on a bare wall would look better than a bigger piece of art.

The "Problem Solved," light bulb went off in my head. So I went with four 8'x8' Canvas'.

Like I said before I am not the best artist in the world. So I had to recruit my beloved husband to help me. Unlike me he knows how to doodle.

This is what I've come up with so far.

and this is how they will be layed out on the wall, maybe not in the same color order, but it will be close.

The picture on the top left will be a piggy. The pink one will be a zebra. The brown one is a lamb and of course the one on the bottom right is a turtle.

I have to say the husband did a very good job. Their is no limit to what we can do together. LOL

I will keep you guys updated when it is all complete.

Pottery Barn Butterfly Mobile

Yes......I am still working on Christina's room. With my luck I will probably finish the day before she is born.

But, I was going back and forth on whether or not I was going to do a traditional mobile that connects to the baby's crib. Or make something myself that shows a bit of creativity and of course me I choose the creativity.

I happened to come across this mobile at Pottery Barn Kids and absolutely fell in LOVE with it. But I was not going to shell out the $59 price tag that was on it. I mean I love PotteryBarn Kids but not that much. I am a secret penny pincher and I couldn't justify it so instead I chose to make it. Here's a quick (ok, not really quick, it's kind of a lot of steps but totally worth it) tutorial so you can make your own.

and here's Pottery Barn's.....

(PotteryBarn kids)

You'll need:

*1 Wire Wreath Base
*Punches of your choice (mine are the large & small monarch butterfly punch from Martha Stewart)

*Cardstock

*Fishing line (jewelry aisle)

*Pennies

*White spray paint

*Wreath doo-dads for decor (optional)

*Hot glue gun/sticks

1st step is to spray paint your wreath base white. Next start punching away! It's important to use a good cardstock paper (verses printer paper) so your punches will have some durability to them. It's hard to tell how many you'll need so I just punched a whole slew & then as I used them up I would punch more.

To assemble the top of the mobile tie 4 separate strings to the top of the mobile making sure they're evenly spaced apart. The length is really up to you, I cut super long pieces (around 2') at first & then trimmed them down later. Pull the 4 string together & make sure they're even by letting your wreath form dangle, it should hang evenly. If not adjust the strings accordingly. Once you get them right tie them in a knot at the top, then tie a loop with the extra string. This is what your mobile will hang by.

(I temporarily hang mine from my dinning room chandelier because it is easier to string the butterflies when they are higher up)

I hope you can see it, the light in the room was a little off.

Now time to string some butterflies. Take a 2' piece of line & knot it to the top of the mobile on on the of the rings, string on your butterflies by either weaving the line through the punch-made openings or another technique is same type of process as making a "stop bead" for you beaders out there. Basically, string the butterfly & then thread your line back up through where you came out of, when you tug down on it the butterfly should be secured into place.

Once you get to the end of your line you need to weigh them down so the string will not curl back up. To do that I traced the circumference of the penny on each color cardstock paper that I used and then cut them out. I attached one circle to each butterfly and used the hot glue to sandwich them together with the penny and the string in the middle.

I think the finished product looks best if you vary where, how many & what type of punches you use. Also attach your lines to the different wreath rings so some hang a little further back than others.

The last step is optional, I really liked how the one from PBKids had a bit of pink berry looking things at the top. I found some pearl flower decorations at Michaels on sale for $1 (they were trying to get rid of their Christmas flowers).

I also took a few leftover butterfly punches & hot glued them along the top of the mobile, if you bend their wings back a bit they look like they're perched right on top. Super cute in my opinion.

It seems as if Kat always finds a way to get into one of my crafting pictures.

and here is the finished product in the baby's room.

UPDATE: Advent Calendar

Hope all you guys had a food-filled Thanksgiving because I know I did. All of the tasty treats including my disaster Lemon meringue pie (which was soupy). All in all our trip to Luray, VA was wonderful.

(The annual Devanny, Belton and Leland football game)SOOOOO Funny

Well, guys it's December 1st and I am proud to say that my Advent calendar is done. Needless to say I finished it late last night. BUT IT IS DONE.

The girls were so excited the whole time I was sewing the calendar. Constantly asking me "Are you done, are you done." Well, just Courtney asking me that, Kat could care less what I was doing. She wanted to get her hands onto the scissors and cut into all of my felt and get into ALL of my glitter.

I did get tons finished over the Thanksgiving break, thanks to my AWESOME niece's and nephews and that Adorable baby Gabe who kept my children occupied.

During the drive to Luray I did get most of my ornaments done and sewed on most of the pockets there. My family better appreciate this calendar because my fingers are sooo sore from all of the threading. Here are the ornaments that will go into random pockets to go onto the tree.

Here is the finished product of all my hard work.

The stick that's holding my calendar is one from my tree in the back yard. A.C. Moore had a sale on the cutest glitter scrapbooking paper. So I HAD to get a couple of them.

All in all, I think this calendar turned out really good. I am so proud of myself.

Now that I have all the pockets filled with ornaments and candy, I can focus on other big projects like:

• the floors on the main level


• Baby Christina's room

Until next time.

Homemade Advent Calendar

I have to say we are embarking on one of my most favorite holidays.......Christmas.

Since I've been married we have had the most fun with our advent calendar. I really can't remember having one as a child. The last three years seeing Courtney wake up in the morning to open one of the perforated windows on the calendar makes me excited for some reason. But I do have to say our advent calendar has taken a beating the last couple years.

So I thought to myself.... I have all this time on my hands. Why not make a homemade advent calendar that Courtney, Kat and Christina (the little joy in the oven) could last us for years and years to come and any other children we might have in the future.

I started looking online because I was not sure how I should start my calendar. I came across these images and pulled bits and pieces from each.

(Pottery Barn Kids)

This is what I've gotten done so far

I have to say the worst part is over. Which was embroidering all those numbers on to the pockets. This calendar is going to be a combination candy and decorating. In no particular order half of the pockets will have some candy and the rest of the pockets will have little felt decorations to decorate the tree on top on the calendar. That's what the buttons are for on the tree.

I still have to attach the tree and pockets to the main part of the fabric and under each pocket their will be a bible reading to meditate on for the day. I am hoping to get all of this done over the Thanksgiving break. Between the long car ride and the all of the children to play with at my sister in-laws, I won't have to worry about the kids getting in the way. LOL

I am not the best at decorative stitching but I'm pretty sure after this project I'll be ready to go pro.

I will post the final picture before the 1st of December (hopefully).